Signs of Unresolved Trauma

• Blunt or numbness, withdrawal, no obvious affect in appropriate situations
• Movement to intense or overwhelming feelings suddenly and rapidly (e.g., rage)
• Depression (problem sleeping, eating, poor energy, low motivation, poor self esteem, poor memory, anxiety)
• Panic feelings (trouble breathing, feeling as if having a heart attack, fearful, anxious, etc.)

• Addictive behaviors (over/under-eating, gambling, drinking, smoking, etc.)
• Patterns of repeated behavior to avoid feelings (promiscuity, internet use, sleeping, etc.)
• Chaos in life (problems with relationships, employment, financial, etc.)
• Self-harmful behavior (often “alluded to” but not obvious) such as scratching and cutting, burning self, hair pulling, etc.)

• Belief that individual is responsible for original trauma
• Irrational/illogical beliefs about responsibility for events in the present
• Belief that individual is bad, a failure, unlovable, a loser, damaged, insignificant, worthless
• May induce others to treat them badly

• Seek out relationships with abusive people
• Induce abuse from others rather than waiting for it to happen
• Perceive abuse which confirms the belief that individual is unworthy and unlovable
• Hurt others (different than appropriate self-protection)
• Act aggressively toward others who are weak and vulnerable
• Compulsively driven to help others, often to individual detriment
• Acts of generosity not in accord with the relationship

• Inability to tolerate individual’s ambivalence toward the perpetrator even after the trauma ceases
• Inability to tolerate individual’s ambivalence toward other trusted figures, such as failed rescuers or those who denied the trauma
• Inability to tolerate Individual’s ambivalence toward significant persons currently in their lives

• Avoid relationships altogether
• Avoid close relationships because of inherent risk
• Avoid situations that might lead to closeness
• Protective and unfriendly to others before others can be unfriendly
• Have intense but brief relationships
• Remain attached even when the relationship is unhealthy
• Perceive the relationship in a distorted manner

• Child-like, concrete, and magical thinking
• What is thought of as normal and real does not coincide with “real life”
• Derive “life rules” and “automatic thoughts” from childhood distortions
• Cling to the distortions despite challenge or contrary evidence
• Provoke a non-existent reality into being in order to verify a distortion
• Collect evidence to support the distortion while ignoring evidence to the contrary
• Patterns of distorted thinking (such as generalizations, all or nothing, discounting,  jumping to conclusions, assuming, labeling, and emotional reasoning)

• Loss of (long) spaces of time (cannot remember what was said or done)
• Appear to “switch” personalities, or be different people, even in speech and behavior
• Trances or sleepwalking
• Childhood companions, “voices,” “too much noise in my head”
• Inability to recall important information, usually of a stressful or traumatic nature
• Confusion about personal identity or assumption of a new identity

These may include addictions, mood disorders, and personality disorders

• Talk about suicide
• Wish to be dead
• Have a plan to end life